TEXT: 2 Corinthians 1:20
TITLE: HOW TO APPROPRIATE THE PROMISES OF GOD.
We hear a lot about faith & appropriating or taking hold of God’s promises today. Well just how are we to appropriate or take hold of God’s promises?
THE FIRST STEP
The first step toward appropriating the promises of God is the same as the first step toward salvation, or any other blessing that God promises; that is, for the individual to know what the Bible clearly teaches, that it is God’s will. The Word of God must convince each individual that what he/she is praying for is the will of God. We must know what the Bible says about what we are praying or asking for. For it is impossible to have real faith as long as there is the slights doubt as to its being God’s will.
It is impossible to boldly claim by faith a blessing, which we are not certain that God offers, because the power of God can be claimed only where the will of God is known. For instance, it would be next to impossible to get a sinner to “believe unto righteousness” before you had fully convinced him that it was God’s Will to save him. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Faith must rest on the will of God alone, not on our desires or wishes. Appropriating faith does not believe that God can but that He will.
Faith Is Expecting God To Do
For instance, when God commands us to pray for the sick, He means us to pray with faith, which we could not do if we did not know His will in the matter. Until a person knows God’s Will, they have no basis for faith, because faith is expecting God to do what we know it is His will to do. It is not hard, when we have faith, to get God to do His will.
When we know it is His will, it is not difficult for us to believe that He will do what we are sure He wants to do. It is in this way that every saved person has experienced the still greater miracle of the new birth. There can be no appropriation by faith until we are made to know by the Word of God what God has provided for us.
God’s way of saving the soul, of healing the body, & of doing everything else He wants to do, is to send His Word – His promise - & then keep the promise wherever it produces faith.
Just as a little girl’s faith for a new dress comes by hearing the promise of her mother to buy it next Saturday, so our faith comes by hearing God’s word, or promise, to do it. Both the little girl’s faith & ours “comes by hearing.” Now, the little girl could not, & would not be expected to have faith for the new dress until her mother promised it; so we cannot, nor are we expected to, have faith for any of the blessings or promises of God until that faith comes by hearing the Word (promise) of God to do it.
How could any one find “justification by faith” until it was preached to him, & how could any one find healing by faith until it was preached to him? It is the Scriptures, which are able to make men wise unto salvation.
THE VALUE OF GOD’S REDEMPTIVE NAMES
God has given us some promises we can appropriate or take hold of in His redemptive names. What can be more His Word than His redemptive & covenant names, which were given, all 7 of them, for the specific purpose of revealing to every man in Adam’s race His redemptive attitude toward them.
His 7 Redemptive names reveal what our Redemption includes. If we haven’t appropriated the promises of these names then we need to. He has many other names, but only 7 Redemptive names; & these 7 names are never used in the Scriptures except in His dealings with man. Not 6 names, not 8; but 7, the perfect number, because he is a Perfect Savior, His redemption covering the whole scope of human need. The blessings revealed by each of these names are all in the Atonement.
Jehovah-Shalom means, “the Lord is our Peace.”
Jehovah-Raah means, “the Lord is my Shepherd.” He became our Shepherd by giving His life for the sheep. He leads, guides, protects, & provides for us our Shepherd.
Jehovah-Jireh means, “the Lord will provide.”
Jehovah-Nissi means “the Lord our Banner,” or Victor, by spoiling principalities & powers on the cross.
He bore our sins, & became Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “the Lord our Righteousness,” opening the way for every sinner to receive the gift of righteousness.
Jehovah-Rapha means “I am the Lord that heals you,” or “I am the Lord your Physician.”
The name Jehovah means, “I am.” No one has a right to change God’s “I am” to “I was.” He is this to us as we take & receive those promises of His redemptive names.
THE SECOND STEP
The second step is to be sure you are right with God, because our redemptive blessings are conditional. After we hear the gospel, & know what it offers, Jesus says, “repent and believe the Gospel.” Only those who are right with God can follow the instructions to believe the Gospel.
Until a man or woman squarely faces & settles the question of obedience to God, he or she is not on believing ground.
There is something wrong when a man desires the blessing but not the Blesser – His mercy but not Himself. It is not proper to seek His mercy while rejecting his Will. Do not ask for a little blessing while rejecting a big one. It is impossible to receive & reject Divine blessings at the same time. Don’t expect God to do what he says if you aren’t living in obedience. Don’t try to appropriate His promises if your relationship to Him is not right.
We can’t claim to be right with God if we are not living in obedience to Him. Even the Holy Spirit tells us to submit ourselves to God before He says, “resist the devil,” because no one can successfully resist the devil until he submits himself to God. When the devil is thus resisted he will not merely walk away; he will literally run – “flee from you!” (James 4:7).
God’s Promises Only to the Obedient
It is to those who will delight themselves in the Lord that He gives the desires of their heart. Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” God has not lowered the standard for the Day of Grace. It is only to the obedient – those who will “diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord” & “do that which is right in His sight.
“Faith, you see, is the union of our hearts and wills with God’s Will and purpose; and where this unity is lacking results are impossible. This is very important spiritual law, to which, in our times, we have been woefully blind.” – Rev. P. Gavin Duffy.
It is to those who “walk uprightly” that it is said, “No good thing will he withhold” (Psalm 84:11). Therefore, before seeking anything from God we should yield ourselves to the “first and great commandment,” “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…” for God says, “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him” (Psalm 91:14). Deuteronomy 7:9 (TLB) – “Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is the faithful God who for a thousand generations keeps his promises and constantly loves those who love him and who obey his commands.”
In Christ; the True Vine there is all the life for our souls & bodies that we need; but how are we to possess & enjoy this except by our union with the Vine. It is not apart from Him, but “in Him” that “you are complete” (Colossians 2:10).
Substitution without union is not sufficient for our possession & enjoyment of the life of the Vine. If you need a miracle, get in tune with the Miracle-Worker. We enjoy the Life of the Vine by our perfect union with the Vine. Asking while refusing to be led by the Spirit is like asking a carpenter to repair the house while refusing to let him in the house.
THE THIRD STEP
Getting things from God is like playing checkers, when, after one-person moves, he has nothing to do until the other player moves. Each man moves in his own turn. So, when God has provided healing, or any other blessing, & sent us His Word, it is our move before He will move again. Our move is to expect what he promises when we pray, which will cause us to act our faith before we see the promise because the answer comes in the next move, which is God’s move.
God never moves out of His turn, but He always moves when it is His turn. When Noah was “warned of God of things not seen as yet,” his move was to believe that the flood was coming, & act his faith by building the ship on dry land. So, when God says to “any sick,” “the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up,” you, like Noah, are informed of God “of things not seen as yet,” and your move is the same as Noah’s, which is, to believe & act accordingly. Fallen nature is governed by what it sees, by its senses, but faith is governed by the pure Word of God, & is nothing less than expecting God to do what He promises – treating him like an honest Being.
By expectation I do not mean hope. One writer has well said, “We hope for what may be possible, but we expect what must be possible…with that expectancy that shuts out doubt or fear of failure, & shows unshakable confidence.”
All that a man or woman of faith needs is to know that God has spoken. This imparts perfect certainty to the soul. “Thus saith the Lord” settles everything. “It is written” is all that faith needs.
Faith always blows the ram’s horn before, not after, the walls are down. Faith never judges according to the sight of the eyes, because it is the evidence of things not seen but promised. Faith rest on far more solid ground than the evidence of the senses, & that is the Word of God which “abideth forever.” Our senses may deceive us, but God’s Word never!
God Cannot Lie
Jesus, at the grave of Lazarus, looked up, & said, “I thank You, Father, that You have heard me,” though Lazarus was still dead. The little girl is not afraid to testify in advance that she is to have a new dress & when her playmates say, “How do you know you are?” she confidently replies, “Why! Mamma promised it!” Now, you have a better reason for expecting an answer than the little girl has for expecting a new dress because the mother may die before Saturday, but God cannot. The mother can lie, but God cannot.
Faith looks “not at the things that are seen.” There was no flood in sight when Noah built his ark. Stone walls had never before fallen down at the blowing of rams’ horns & shouting. They were merely expecting what God promised, & when they acted their faith by blowing the rams’ horns while the walls were still up, this was their move. Then, of course, God moved in His turn, & down came the walls!
The whole eleventh chapter of Hebrews is written to show how each one who had faith acted
God is so well pleased with the actings of faith that He has listed in detail many cases, as recorded in the eleventh of Hebrews.
“By faith, Noah” acted so-and-so. “By faith Jacob” acted so-and –so. “By faith Joseph” acted so-and-so. “By faith Moses” acted so-and-so. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.” “By faith Abraham” acted so-and so, when everything seemed contrary to what God had promised. It was by considering the promise of God (not her barrenness) that Sarah received strength to become a mother when she was past age.
These all acted with nothing but the Word of God as their reason for expecting the thing He had promised.
“Faith means we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 – Moffatt’s translation). Convinced, of course, because God, Who cannot lie, has spoken. How all sufficient is this reason for believing! It is not, as many unthinking persons suppose, believing without evidence, but believing because of the very highest possible evidence, God’s Word, which is “settled in Heaven.” You can appropriate God’s promises when you are absolutely convinced of the declarations of God’s Word & then act on them.
In Mark 11:24 Jesus tells us exactly how to appropriate any of the blessings or promises purchased for us by His death. Having promised all that we need, He says, “Whatever things you ask when you pray…” not after 20 years; when you pray, “believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
The condition of receiving what we ask for is to believe that he answers our prayers when we pray.
In other words, when you pray Christ authorizes you to consider your prayer answered, as when he stood at the grave of Lazarus & said, “I thank You, father, that you have heard Me,” before Lazarus come forth from the grave. Christ bids us say, with faith, “I thank You, Father, that You have heard me,” before we have yet seen the answer to our prayer.
